Author’s Note: This takes place during Season 1 Episode 12 ‘Vertigo’. Some lines are directly from the episode. My take on how the scene could have played out. This story has a couple of references to my previous Arrow story ‘Barely My Brother’, and it could be read as a follow up, but the story can also stand on it’s own. Thanks to Hope1iz for the beta read and the suggestions. You made the story better. :)
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, and I’m not making any money from this story.
Warning: Non consensual M/F disciplinary spanking of a teen by her older brother.
Office Monkey
Oliver answered the door, and smiled when he saw Laurel at his doorstep.
“I have good news about Thea’s case,” she said, “Really good news.”
Oliver gestured for her to come in, and asked hopefully, “Your father got through to the judge?”
Laurel nodded, and stepped inside.
For the first time since getting that call from the police about Thea’s drug induced car accident, he felt a bit of hope that things were going to sway in their favor. “Thank you,” he said, gratitude lacing his voice.
Laurel put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I was happy to do it for her.”
“Do what for who?” Thea asked, coming down the stairs.
Oliver smiled at his baby sister and said, “Let’s go talk in the family room.”
“Ooookay,” Thea said.
Once they were all in the family room, Oliver sat down next to Laurel expectantly. Laurel turned to Thea and said, “It’s about your case.”
“My case?”
“My father was able to get Judge Bracket to back off his hard line stance.”
With confusion, Thea said, “Your father hates me.”
“No,” Laurel and Oliver said at the same time. The two looked at each other for a moment before Laurel said, “My father hates him.” Oliver nodded.
“Look, nobody asked you to get involved,” Thea said with an edge of irritation to her voice.
Shocked at his sister’s rude tone, Oliver said, “I did.”
After a short uncomfortable pause, Laurel said, “The judge has agreed to a sentence of five hundred hours of community service, and two years of probation, provisional on the appointment of someone to act inloco parentis.”
“In local what?” Thea asked.
“It means that the court will appoint an individual to assume responsibility for you,” Laurel hesitated and then said, “Me.”
Snidely, Thea said, “I say thanks, but no thanks.”
“Thea,” Oliver said with censure. “You don’t actually have a choice.”
“Oh, actually I do,” Thea said, getting more angry by the second. “See, I’m eighteen now, and I can make my own decisions, so I decide not to be your ex-girlfriend’s office monkey.”
Shocked, Oliver was momentarily at a loss for words. He’d been sick with dread for weeks due to his sister’s accident and trial, and now she was treating Laurel’s offer with disdain instead of gratitude.
Laurel started to stand. “Well if you change your mind then.”
“Laurel?” Oliver said, snapping out of his silence. He grasped Laurel’s hand in his own, and said, “Could you please wait here for just a few minutes while I talk to my sister alone?”
Laurel sat back down. “Sure.”
“Thank you.” Oliver stood and took the step over to where his sister was sitting. Looking down at her angry expression, he was reminded of visiting her in the hospital right after the accident. He’d wanted to comfort her and throttle her at the same time. He’d found it difficult to get past the fact that she’d endangered not only her own life, but also the lives of all the other drivers that night when she’d gotten behind the wheel. He’d gone with the desire to comfort, and now he had to wonder if that had been a mistake.
When he reached down to grab his sister’s arm Thea said, “There’s nothing to talk about.”
He hauled her into a standing position, kept his hand firmly on her upper arm, and pulled her out of the room as he spoke. “Yes there is.”
Thea found her brother’s expression uncomfortably familiar. She’d only seen that look of determination on his face one other time, and that night she’d ended up over his knee. “Ollie?” she said with trepidation, as they made their way to the stairs.
Oliver saw John near the front door, and when the older man raised an eyebrow in question, Oliver said, “Make sure my sister and I aren’t disturbed for a few minutes.”
John gave him a nod, and stood by the bottom of the stairs once the siblings had started up.
Suddenly extremely worried, Thea tried repeatedly to pull her arm out of her brother’s grip. “I can walk by myself! And we don’t need to talk in my room!”
He stopped and said quietly, “If you don’t stop struggling, I’ll carry you.”
Grimacing at the memory of him tossing her over his shoulder to carry her out of the club a few months ago, Thea swallowed, and nodded to show him that she understood. When he started walking again, she followed him quietly, and stopped trying to get out of his hold.
As soon as they made it to Thea’s bedroom, Oliver let her go, and shut the door behind them.
When her brother let her go instead of pulling her over his knee, relief washed over her. As soon as she realized they were in her room to actually talk, her anger resurfaced full force, and she glared at her brother.
Oliver took a deep breath and said carefully, “Thea. You’re in real trouble, and rightly so. Doing drugs and driving… It is beyond stupid. That is a good deal Laurel got you. Why aren’t you jumping at it?”
“I already have a mother.”
“Laurel isn’t trying to mother you, she’s trying to help you stay out of jail. If you don’t take this deal, you will go to jail, and it will ruin the rest of your life.”
“I don’t care. I want to ruin Mom’s life.”
“So you’re planning on going to jail to spite her?” Oliver asked with disbelief.
“She’s a liar and a cheat. You can pretend she’s a saint, but I hate her. She betrayed dad.”
Oliver ran a hand down his face and said, “My God, Thea, that’s the reasoning of a five year old, not an adult.” He considered telling his sister the truth about their father. On the raft, his father had confessed to being the one who’d cheated in their relationship, but Oliver wasn’t sure his sister was ready to hear that, and for the next few minutes he didn’t want her focusing on anything other than what she’d done wrong.
He took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders, and kept his voice firm. “This situation has nothing to do with Mom. Mom didn’t take drugs, get behind the wheel, and then crash the car! This is about you. You’ve made one bad choice after another lately. Maybe having Laurel keeping an eye on you will be a good thing.”
Feeling defensive, and guilty, Thea said, “How convenient for you that Laurel is the one who wants to step up and help me. You say it’s all about me, but I think it’s all about you. You asked Laurel to help, because you’re still in love with her, and this would give you a reason to see her all the time.”
Shaking his head, Oliver said, “No, Thea, I asked her to help, because I’m trying to protect you, even if that means protecting you from yourself. I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you drug free, and out of jail, starting right now.” He captured his sister’s wrist, sat down on the corner of the bed, and pulled her over his lap.
“No! Not again! Ollie don’t!”
He started to rapidly smack the seat of her pants.
“Ow!” She couldn’t believe she was in this position again, and wanted out of it as quickly as possible, so she said the one thing that she knew he wanted to hear, even though it was a lie. “Ollie, wait! I’ll take the deal! I will! Ow!”
He said, “Yes you will,” and kept spanking.
She kicked her feet in frustration, squirmed, and tried to cover her ass with her hand. “Okay, so stop!”
He paused long enough to pull her hand up to the small of her back, and said, “We’re not even close to done.” He started spanking again. “This isn’t just about the deal. It’s about the entire situation. You should be ashamed of yourself for taking Vertigo, and for trying to drive while you were on it, but instead of being contrite and accepting our help, you’re acting as if you’ve done nothing wrong. I’m telling you, Thea, that behavior stops today.”
The scolding on top of the spanking made her eyes fill with tears. “I know! Ow! I know it was wrong, and I’m sorry! Ah! Ollie, please stop!”
He didn’t stop. “Sometimes being sorry isn’t enough. You may hate the idea of a stand in parent, but I think it’s exactly what you need. Laurel and I will be keeping a close eye on you, and if you mess up, I will step in.”
Tears slipped down her face, “Okay! Ow! I get it! I swear I get it!”
He spanked even harder. “You won’t take drugs, you won’t drive impaired, and you will take the deal!”
“Owww!” Her legs kicked involuntarily, as she squirmed to get away from the punishment.
Oliver stopped spanking, but held her in place. Once she stopped struggling, and realized he wasn’t letting her up, she started crying in earnest.
“You need to promise me Thea,” he said. “No more drugs.”
“I pr… promise,” she said through her tears.
With those words, he let go of her captured wrist, and flipped her over to sit in his lap. She clung to him and buried her head in his chest. He held her close and gave her a few minutes to calm down.
When Oliver heard more sniffling than crying from his sister, he said, “We need to go back downstairs and talk to Laurel.”
She shook her head and pushed away from his chest so she could look in his eyes. “I can’t talk to her now.”
“I’m sorry Speedy, but you have to,” he said. “You were incredibly rude to her after she went out of her way to help you, so you’re going to go downstairs long enough to apologize and accept the deal.”
“But…”
His expression hardened as he cut her off, “You can go apologize, or you can go back over my knee. Which is it going to be?”
Fresh tears slid down her face. “That’s not really a choice.”
“Thea…” he warned.
“I’ll apologize,” she said with a glare, “But I hate you.”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and instead helped her stand. He gently pushed her towards her bathroom. “Go clean up. I’ll wait here.”
A few minutes later, Thea had on some fresh make up, making it less obvious that she’d been crying. He put an arm around her shoulders and the two of them went downstairs.
John heard them coming, and moved away from the stairs. He made eye contact with Oliver to make sure he wasn’t needed anymore, and when Oliver gave him a nod, John headed towards the kitchen.
The siblings entered the family room together. Laurel smiled at Oliver first, and then Thea. When the older woman saw Thea’s expression, her brow crinkled with concern. “Are you okay, Thea?”
Blushing, Thea mumbled, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Laurel looked at Oliver for some kind of explanation, but he just shook his head. He gave his sister’s shoulder a squeeze and looked at her expectantly.
Turning an even brighter shade of pink, Thea made eye contact with Laurel for a split second, and then muttered to the floor, “I’m sorry about earlier. I’ll take the deal.”
Thinking that something fishy was going on, Laurel stood up and walked over to get a closer look at Thea. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Thea forced herself to make eye contact, and she could tell that Laurel’s concern was genuine. Feeling pretty rotten about what she’d said earlier, she said with sincerity, “I’m sure I was mean to you, after you went out of your way to get me a deal. You didn’t deserve that, and I’m really sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” Laurel said.
“So what’s the next step?” Oliver said.
Laurel said, “I’ll call Judge Bracket, and get the paperwork in motion. You shouldn’t even have to go back to court, one of the clerks will bring the forms over for you to sign.”
“That’s great,” Oliver said. “Thank you so much for everything, Laurel. I truly appreciate it.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “It was the right thing to do.” Laurel’s cell phone rang. She dug it out of her purse, looked at the caller I.D. and said, “Sorry, I’ve got to take this. I’ll see myself out.” She headed towards the front door and called over her shoulder, “I’ll call you once I talk to Judge Bracket,” before answering her phone.
“Okay,” Oliver said as she left.
Once they were alone again, Oliver squeezed Thea’s shoulders again and said, “Thank you for doing what I asked.”
Thea pushed his arm away and said, “Like I had a choice.”
Frowning, Oliver said, “Do you remember what you said to me just before we left for the trial?”
“I said I wished Dad were here,” Thea said quietly, still desperately missing him.
“Right, and what did I say?”
Thea crossed her arms and sighed. “You said, ‘I’m here.’”
He pulled her into a hug and said, “I meant it. I’m here to help guide you, and to help you make the right choices. Do you honestly think Dad would want you to go to prison just because you were angry with Mom?”
Thea opened her mouth, and then closed it again, thinking that over. “No,” she whispered.
“That’s right, he wouldn’t.”
Thea shook her head and pushed away from her brother. “But that doesn’t mean I forgive her. I won’t ever forgive her. She ruined our family.”
With those words, Oliver knew he couldn’t keep his father’s confession a secret anymore, even though his mother had basically ordered him not to tell Thea the truth. He sighed and said gently, “Thea, Mom didn’t cheat on Dad. He cheated on her.”
“What?” Thea’s eyes opened wide with shock. She shook her head. “You’re lying.”
Looking at his sister with sympathy, Oliver shook his head. “I’m not. Dad told me. It was one of his regrets.”
Tears slipped down Thea’s face. Oliver went to hug her again, but she took a step back, and held up a hand to stop him. “No. Just… no. I need some time.”
He forced himself to stay still, and watched his sister head back up the stairs to her room.
“How dare you!” His mother, Moira, whispered from the opposite entryway of the family room.
Oliver turned to face her and said, “She had a right to know, Mom. She’s old enough.”
“That wasn’t your call to make.”
“Maybe not, but it’s done, and there’s no taking it back.”
The two glared at each other for a few seconds. Oliver looked away first, and said quietly, “Laurel got her a deal. She’ll do two years probation, with no jail time.” He heard his mother take a deep breath. He made eye contact, and could see the unguarded expression of relief on her face. He said, “You should go talk to her. She needs you right now.”
His mother nodded, and headed towards the stairs.
Oliver felt the beginnings of a headache forming after dealing with his family, and went to find John to discuss work. Maybe confronting someone who had failed the city would help him feel better.
Moira found her daughter’s bedroom door ajar. She could see Thea lying face down on her bed crying into her pillow. With a sad sigh, Moira pushed the door open, and went to sit beside Thea on the bed.
When Thea felt the bed dip, she turned to see who it was. “Mom,” she said tearfully, and launched herself into her mother’s arms.
A little surprised at the force of the hug after months of her daughter’s disdain, it took Moira a second to respond. She started to pet Thea’s hair like she used to when her daughter had been a small child. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way sweetheart.”
Thea shook her head. “I’m not. I’m glad Ollie told me.”
Moira leaned back to look at her daughter’s face. “Then why so many tears?”
“I was horrible to you for months!” Thea buried her face in her mother’s shirt, and muttered, “I’m sorry. So, so sorry.”
Moira went back to petting her hair and said, “Oh Thea, sweetie, there’s nothing to be sorry for.” She squeezed her daughter tight and said, “Everything’s going to be fine, now. I promise.”
For the first time in months, Thea actually felt comforted by her mother’s words.
The End
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